It seems like its only a matter of time before the US government introduces a new wave of regulations on cryptocurrency.

Steve Mnuchin was asked about the topic today at an event hosted by the Economic Club, and the Treasuy Secretary was quick to rattle off a number of cliched responses always used to justify bigger and more intrusive government:

"We want to make sure that bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things," he said Friday at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Washington. He added the U.S. is working with world leaders in the G-20 on "making sure that this doesn't become the Swiss numbered bank accounts."...

Mnuchin also said he is concerned about speculation in cryptocurrencies. The price of bitcoin shot up 1,200 percent last year, and other digital tokens, such as ethereum and Ripple's XRP, have grabbed their share of attention. "I want to be sure consumers trading this understand the risks," he said on Friday. "I'm concerned consumers could get hurt."

Of course, there is some humor in the notion of Treasury Secretary Mnuchin as the protector of consumers against dangerous financial scams. After all, as owner of OneWest Bank bank, it was he that was accused by the California State government for engaging in fraudulent mortgage practices following the financial crisis. As CNN Money noted[1]:

By January 2013, when the memo [written by California investigators] and complaint were prepared, OneWest had foreclosed on 35,000 California homes and had begun foreclosing on 45,000 more, the complaint said. The draft complaint accused OneWest of "widespread violation" of California foreclosure laws.

The memo said that OneWest backdated documents and caused them to be filed with county recorders. It also said that OneWest made unlawful bids at trustee sales, resulting in "the wrong parties winning auctions," and failed to comply with state rules for the timing and mailing of foreclosure documents.

"OneWest's false filings and unauthorized conduct in the course of the foreclosure process harmed homeowners by denying them timely and important information about their foreclosures and potentially shortening the amount of time they had available to find a way to become current on their mortgage obligations," the memo said.

The memo also said that investigators could not subpoena bank records and had been hampered by OneWest's "obstruction" of another state investigation.

Of course, in terms of defrauding consumers, any shenanigans at OneWest bank pail in comparison to Mnuchin's most outlandish con: